30 November 2011

Workshop: a magic word in the seventies.This is the first concert (of a short series) held by this groupof musicians, few days later in Milan, they performed with the addition of Lester Bowie and then in Modena with the addition of Alexander von Schlippenbach.

A slight change of pace .... (4..Andy and lucky)
here is an ecclectic typically canterbury style ,at times bucolic romp through the sublime and the ridiculous..
in the Form of the one and only performance ever by Mad axe, a band convened by the Late Hugh hopper ..

This sits stylistically somewhere between the frolicsome free floating RnB of Delivery , and the more complex less whimsical more intensely organic 'free' fusion of soft heap (another Hopper band, which Hewins was also in for a time...)

As great as the band is , the real interest for me is of course Lol Coxhills playing ,His distinctive trade mark slippery soprano, joyously romping and weaving insousciantly through every stylistic variation!..there are few things in this world more fulfilling and Beautiful!

from a purely technical standpoint Coxhill also registers,better than the others on these averagely, recorded but very listenable , highly entertaining 2 sets

recording is slightly reverberant and bright , but a whole lot better sounding than the later gen version thats been floating around on dime and elsewhere(as mp3's)

there are times when Hewins guitar tone sounds so much like an electric piano ,its uncanny .. that's mostly down to the sound quality of the acoustics of the room.

possibly from a first gen Master
or a good remaster of a Muddier version which was re-seeded on dime by someone(Lake Ogelton?)

Anyone wanting to hear more Coxhill, and Hopper together could do worse than checking out Hoppers 1984,which these days i think is reissued by Cuneiform... its superb.. one of the pieces played on this concert (miniluv.. is from that album)

29 November 2011

I've been delighted to see that some of the records released on the Centre of the World label have been popping up on this blog lately. So about time then to do a quick update on one of the main featured artists on that label, and as it turns out, very much active today, happily.

This is off a recent trio concert in Sardinia, Italy, with new folks in the rhythm section. To keep things in some sort of perspective, I'm going to throw into the ring an old trio recording done back in the early 70s and released on the Centre label and at that time with Alan Silva and Mohammad Ali backing him up. This was "More or less Few" which some old timers to the blog scene might have seen or downloaded before, but still relevant to new timers who may not know this or the other seminal pieces from that time. Do listen to the two versions of "Chasing the piano" and compare notes, as it were. For hard core audio freaks, this was from the days of mp3s, but I'm hoping to do an upgrade from a less scratchy, second copy.

Got a couple of more Fews which I'm hoping to get to, but meanwhile, dig this!More than an hour of goodness!

For Agmosk and who ever else is interested, Here's Vol 2, of Heiner Stadler's Brains on Fire , i Won't Waffle on ..those interested can read my description of Vol 1....
there really is very little info online about these sessions .. so please if you know something ,fill in the gaps.

As i stated in that post , Side one of this Lp, a Duet featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Masterly Reggie Workman is unfortunately damaged almost beyond repair .
This Therefore is just a straight rip, with only the volume raised.... no eq, de click or anything else...

I have a high tolerance for Vinyl noise , and just barely find it listenable .... i'll leave it for someone better than i to restore side one... feel free to attempt it and repost in comments.
The sound quality of these two sessions are very different, side a (the damaged side) being bright and reverberant while side two has more of a rough hewn , grainier , low budget sound.

21 November 2011

For those who miss Paul Rutherford and his playing - full of wit and innovation - Andy has offered us this broadcast.Unfortunately there's no official recording of this expanded group. Here's your chance to listen to:

18 November 2011

Here's something quite different. Michael Naura was more famous for being the chief producer (editor) for the NDR (North German Broadcast), where he managed to produce the "most comprehensive and interesting Jazz program in Europe" (Ian Carr).
But he was also a pianist and author/critic. His writings sometimes were quite polemic and sharp, yet he had a vast knowledge and a sometimes acerbic wit.

His first recordings are clearly informed by George Shearing; he openly acknowledged the influence of Brubeck, Horace Silver or the MJQ. His main partner in music - Wolfgang Schlüter - was the one who provided the more creative improvisations.

Here are my rough translations of the titles and the sub-titles (see files for cover pictures):

Here's a great one , by Heiner Stadler a German composer , arranger and Pianist .. who moved to NYC in the Mid 60's.. most of his records have been self released ,as far as i can tell, apart from the Classic Tribute to Monk and Bird on tomato ,which other than this and vol2 is the only Other Stadler i own.

Although informed by the New thing currents of the day , to my ears this music is equally influenced by currents in European Classical music ,and in that sense these piece's are a late flowering of so called third stream , posited by Gunther Schuller and others a decade earlier , Another point of reference is George Russell particularly the contemporaneous music recorded while Russell was living in Scandinavia.

These sessions are comprised of 2 distinct groups featuring some of the Leading lights of the Jazz avant guard.. Jimmy Guiffre is also clearly another obvious point of reference, and in fact Joe Chambers, Barre Phillips and Don Friedman were Guiffre's, regular Rythm section at the time this was recorded.

a special note regarding the little known Tyrone Washington ,who is superb and plays up a veritable firestorm , on Heidi and all tones!

on a technical note I bought this in the Mid Eighties , (also have vol-2),the pressings have various, very audible Flaws , on top of being water damaged they look as though they have been used to cut lines of Amphetamine , as well as being eaten over.. i've cleaned them as best i can (Vol 2 is far worse) i have a vague recollection of seeing a cd release years ago of some of this Material perhaps even on the Tomato label , a single disc compilation of both volumes ... cant find any evidence that it is currently available in any form.... any info on that or other lesser known releases would be appreciated!

1 November 2011

Another gem by N. - say thanks to him.I haven't tracked the rip - it is partly not clear where one title ends and another starts...Apart from removing some clicks I have left this very good solo recording by Maarten Altena as I got it.